U.S. recovery act funding quantum research facility

PORTLAND, Ore.  A new quantum research laboratory will be built in an underground bunker in Maryland with $10.3 million in economic stimulus funding provided by the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The 21,000-square-foot Laboratory for Advanced Quantum Science is scheduled to open in 2013 and will be built under the University of Maryland's Physical Sciences Complex. It will used by the Joint Quantum Institute, a partnership between the University of Maryland and NIST.

The new lab will include sensitive environmental controls to eliminate even the most minute vibrations and changes in temperature that can affect the delicate instruments used to measure quantum effects. Environmental controls will provide ultra-clean air, immunity to all kinds of electromagnetic interference and stable humidity.

Work at the lab will focus on quantum cryptography, quantum computing and the design and use of quantum sensors.

About $123 million from the $787 billion authorized to stimulate the U.S. economy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has been earmarked to construct new scientific research facilities at 11 U.S. universities and non-profit research organizations.